The tally includes $129,374 spent to date in the district's lawsuit against former district parent Diana Zhou, whom the district sued in 2009 seeking to recoup $329,084 it had spent responding to Zhou's alleged complaints.

District officials released the figures Friday following a request from The Express-Times.

Bethlehem schools Superintendent Joseph Roy said the district took legal action against Zhou after spending so much defending against 16 claims initiated by her. District insurance only covered $26,374 of those costs.

"The mother's continued requests and demands for due process hearings were costing the district a lot of money," Roy said.

Zhou's attorney disputes the figures.

Roy said the district prevailed in every complaint, with state-appointed hearing officers finding the district was meeting the needs of Zhou's sons. One is gifted while the other qualifies for both special education and gifted services.

The spending does not account for time the district's special education staff spent responding to Zhou's issues. Roy said that detracted from the needs of other students.

"We said, 'We can't sustain this. Something has to be done,'" Roy said of the decision to file the suit.

Zhou's attorney Kelly Darr, of the Disability Rights Network of Pennsylvania, said she finds the district's actions mind boggling and retaliatory.

"This is a lot of taxpayer money, a lot of money that could go for things for that school district that instead they are using to make this point because this parent deigns to disagree with them," Darr said.

Breaking new ground

The district's lawsuit against Zhou is unusual. Bethlehem is testing a relatively new provision of the federal Individual with Disabilities Education Act that allows districts to try to recoup legal costs from parents allegedly abusing the system.

The school district contends Zhou tried to drive up costs associated with her children's education so the district would relent and send the children to a private school.

Zhou allegedly told a mediator this during a confidential session, which
a federal judge has ruled is not admissible at trial. Judge J. William
Ditter Jr. has also said, however, he could revisit that district claim.

"They have spent all that money, hundreds of thousands of dollars in this
campaign against her," Darr said. "What do they have to show for it?"

Ditter tossed out five other special education-related due process hearings that might have been eligible under the federal law. Darr notes the districts' cost figures include way more than the one hearing.

All along, Zhou was asking for simple things like a quiet classroom to take exams for her eldest son, who has an auditory processing disorder.

"They could get quiet classrooms for every student in his class with the money they spent litigating against her," Darr said.

District's next step

In light of Ditter's rulings, district counsel from the firm King, Spry, Herman, Freund & Faul is reviewing its next step and will update Roy next week, the superintendent said.

"The legal bills do add up," he said. "But you could argue it is still substantially less than what we were incurring."

The suit's initial goal was to get the "unnecessary" complaints to stop, which has happened, and Roy said he hopes to resolve things.

"We are going to take a look at where we are and what we should do moving forward now," Roy said.

Darr thinks the assertion that the suit was meant to stop Zhou is "laughable at this point."

"She doesn't even live in the district anymore because she's
essentially been driven out," Darr said. "They are continuing to throw money down the drain in an effort to smear her."